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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A new liquefied natural gas project on Africa’s west coast may only be 80 percent complete, but the prospect of a new energy supplier has already attracted visits from Polish and German leaders.
Initial gas fields near the coastlines of Senegal and Mauritania are expected to contain about 15 trillion cubic feet (425 billion cubic meters) of gas, five times the amount used by gas-dependent Germany in all of 2019. But production is not expected to begin late next year.
this doesn’t help Europe’s energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in UkraineStill, Gordon Birrell, an executive at project co-developer BP, said the development “couldn’t be more appropriate” as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian gas to power, generate and heat plants.
“Current world events are demonstrating the important role (liquefied gas) can play in supporting national and regional energy security,” he told an energy industry conference in West Africa last month.
And Africa has huge natural gas reserves, and North African countries like it Algeria’s pipeline already connected to Europe, a lack of infrastructure and security challenges have long hindered producers elsewhere on the continent from expanding exports. Established African producers are cutting deals or reducing energy use so they can sell more to boost their finances, but some leaders have warned that hundreds of millions of Africans lack electricity and need supplies domestically.
Nigeria has the largest natural gas reserves in Africa, even though it accounts for only 14% of the EU’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports by ship, Horatius Egua, a spokesman for Nigeria’s oil minister, said. Projects are at risk of energy theft and high costs. Other promising countries such as Mozambique have discovered large gas reserves, but projects have been delayed by violence by Islamist militants.
Europe has been scrambling to find alternative sources because Moscow reduces gas flow for EU countries, triggering a surge in energy prices and Expectations of a recession are growing. The 27-nation European Union, whose energy ministers will meet this week to discuss a petrol price capis preparing for the possibility of a complete shutdown in Russia, but still manages to fill gas reserves to 90%.
European leaders have flocked to countries like Norway, Qatar, Azerbaijan, and especially North Africa, where Algeria has a pipeline to Italy and another to Spain.
Italy and Algeria sign gas deal worth $4 billion In July, a month after Egypt struck a deal with the EU and Israel to boost LNG sales. Angola also signed a gas agreement with Italy.
While an earlier deal allowed Italy’s largest energy company to start production this week at two gas fields in Algeria, it It is not clear when the flow will start Analysts said it was pulled from the July deal due to a lack of details.
African leaders such as Senegalese President Macky Sall want their countries to profit from the projects, even as they are Discourage the pursuit of fossil fuels. They also don’t want to export it all – an estimated 600 million Africans don’t have access to electricity.
“It is legal, fair and equitable that Africa, the continent with the least pollution and the furthest behind in industrialization, should use its existing resources to provide basic energy, improve economic competitiveness and achieve universal access to electricity,” Sall told Reuters. United Nations General Assembly last month.
Algeria is a major supplier – it and Egypt together account for 60% of Africa’s gas production in 2020 – but cannot offset it Russian Gas to Europe At this stage, Mahfoud Kaoubi, a professor of economics at the University of Algiers and an expert on energy issues, said.
“Russia’s annual production is 270 billion cubic meters — it’s huge,” Coby said. “Algeria has 120 billion cubic meters, of which 70.50% is consumed in the domestic market.”
Algeria’s pipeline exports are expected to be 31.8 bcm this year, said Tom Purdie, EMEA gas analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Given the amount of gas used domestically in Algeria, “the main concerns here revolve around the level of production increases that can be achieved, and the likely impact on domestic demand,” Purdie said.
Cash-strapped Egypt is also looking to export more natural gas to Europe, even adjusting air conditioning in shopping malls and street lights to save energy and sell it.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Egypt hopes to bring in an additional $450 million a month in foreign exchange earnings by diverting 15 percent of its domestic gas use for export, according to state media .
More than 60% of Egypt’s natural gas consumption is still used in power stations to keep the country running. Most of its LNG goes to Asian markets.
A new tripartite agreement will emerge Israel sends more gas to Europe via Egypt, it has facilities to liquefy it for export at sea. The EU said it would help both countries increase gas production and exploration.
In Nigeria, despite years of planning, ambitious plans have yet to bear fruit. The country exported less than 1% of its vast gas reserves last year.
Since 2009, a proposed 4,400-kilometer (2,734-mile) pipeline will transport Nigerian gas to Algeria via Niger, largely because of its estimated cost of $13 billion.
Many fear that even if completed, the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline will face the same security risks as the Nigerian oil pipeline, which is regularly attacked by militants and saboteurs.
Lagos-based oil and gas expert Olufola Wusu said the same challenges will hinder increased gas exports to Europe.
“If you look at the actual situation – the issues related to crude oil theft – and others are starting to question our ability to supply gas to Europe,” he said.
Wusu urged the pursuit of LNG, calling it the “most profitable” natural gas strategy to date.
Even that was not without its problems: In July, the head of Nigeria’s LNG Limited, the country’s largest natural gas company, said its plant was running at only 68% of capacity, largely because its operations and earnings had been stifled by oil theft.
In the south, Mozambique is expected to become a major exporter of LNG after discovering large deposits on its Indian Ocean coast in 2010. France’s TotalEnergies has invested $20 billion and has started extracting natural gas to be liquefied at a plant it is building in Parma, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
But Islamist extremist violence forced TotalEnergies to sabotage the project indefinitely last year. Mozambican officials have pledged to secure the Parma region so that work can resume.
Meanwhile, Italian company Eni is pushing ahead with plans to pump and liquefy some of the gas deposits it discovered in Mozambique in 2011 and 2014. Eni built a platform in the Indian Ocean 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the violence in Cape Delgado.
This is the first floating LNG facility in deep waters in Africa, with an annual gas liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tonnes, Eni said.
The platform liquefied its first gas on October 2 and the first cargo is expected to be shipped to Europe in mid-October, according to African Energy.
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